Whole new world
As meet approaches, for the first time in its history, there will be no fans at the races
The Saratoga thoroughbred meet starts Thursday
After 38 years, the streak is going to end. For the first time since 1981, Jack Knowlton won’t be attending opening day at Saratoga Race Course.
No one will. An annual rite of summer in these parts is the start of the wildly popular season of thoroughbred racing at this oasis in Saratoga Springs. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the public is not allowed in.
Forty days of the best racing in the country, maybe in the world, is what journalists and fans alike see year after year. Saratoga is one of the few places in the country where people flock from points north, south, east and west — and beyond — to experience the Spa. Men in
suits and ties and women in dresses and elegant hats occupy the box seats.
Out in the backyard, the picnic crowd — those in Flipflops, T-shirts and shorts — are as much a part of the Saratoga landscape as those who reside in the clubhouse.
“The whole thing is going to be very weird this year,” said Knowlton, who lives in Saratoga Springs and is the owner of Tiz the Law, the best 3-year-old in the country. “Opening day is when you go around and say hello to people you might not have seen since the last Saratoga meet. But, with what is going on in the country and the world, we might not be racing, and that would be rather sad.”
Weird, of course, because of coronavirus. No one outside of those deemed to be essential workers will be allowed at Saratoga when the 152nd meet starts on Thursday. Trainers, jockeys, those who work with the horses, starting gate personnel, outriders, the television crew that will show the races daily, security, medical personnel, officials from the New York Racing Association and media can be inside provided they have a negative COVID-19 test. Masks and social distancing are required at all times
Knowlton is hopeful that before too long that owners will be granted entrance. That call has to come from the office of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. So far, it hasn’t come. In late April, the governor raised doubts that Saratoga would be able to run its meet with spectators. Any change in that would have to come from his office. Again, that has not come.
Knowlton wants the chance to see his prized
New York-bred, Tiz the Law, run in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 8. Tiz the Law most recently won the Belmont Stakes and is the only horse with a chance to win the Triple Crown, which resumes with the Kentucky Derby on Sept. 5.
“It really does go beyond racing,” said owner Mike Repole, who is also part of a group (which includes former Yankee Alex Rodriguez and actor/singer Jennifer Lopez) that is hoping to potentially buy the New York Mets. “This has been a tough year for everyone. No one loves winning and being at Saratoga more than me. If you would have told me six months ago that Saratoga would run without fans, I would say, ‘No way.’ I have always been a racing fan first and an owner second. Being at Saratoga as an owner without fans would not be my style.”
If owners are eventually allowed in, Repole, the leading owner at Saratoga from 2010-12, said he would “probably not come” unless he had a horse running in a Grade I race.
When Thursday does arrive, the only thing that will be normal is the racing. As always, it will be first-class. There are 71 stakes races worth $14.45 million, which is down from last year’s 76 stakes and $20.85 million in purses. Purses are less because the casino at Aqueduct Race Track has been closed since late March due to the pandemic and nearly 40 percent of the purse money is funded by the casino.
Trainer Todd Pletcher, who has won 13 Saratoga titles, has noticed an eerie silence at Oklahoma Training Track in the days leading up to opening day. There aren’t as many people or horses on the grounds.
“I have never seen it this quiet on the Oklahoma this close to the meet,” Pletcher said last week, comparing the day to one in October when the Oklahoma is nearing its closing day.
Pletcher said he will be at Saratoga for the duration of the meet, as usual. Other stables will not. Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas, a staple at Saratoga for years, is staying put in Kentucky. Shug Mcgaughey, another Hall
of Famer, will ship his stable north, though he would prefer that NYRA run the Saratoga meet at Belmont.
“We have everything in order here (at Belmont),” Mcgaughey said. “All the (coronavirus) protocols are in order.”
Linda Rice, the only female to win a Saratoga training title (2009), said things will be different for her this summer.
In summers past, she would have two-thirds of her stable with her at Saratoga and the other third would stay at Belmont.
This year, it’s the other way around and she said she will spend more time downstate.
“I will be doing a lot of driving,” Rice said.
She expects she will be spending the summer going back and forth between Long Island and Saratoga. She does own a place in Saratoga and she plans on running “a lot of horses” at the meet.
Rice said she has people on her staff that bring their children to Saratoga for the summer and they attend summer camps in the area. Those camps are closed because of coronavirus.
Horsemen and women have gotten used to putting on the show in front of an empty grandstand. When racing resumed at Belmont Park on June 3 after being shut down since March 15 because of the coronavirus, it did so without spectators. That may play OK at Belmont; it will take some getting used to at Saratoga.
“I am hoping it will still feel like Saratoga,” Pletcher said. “But it’s going to be hard having the same feel, you know? Certain meets, like Saratoga, Keeneland and Del Mar, have the enthusiastic daily crowds. It is going to be sad that we don’t have that this year, but we have to be thankful we are able to race at all.”
▶ twilkin@timesunion. com 518-454-5415 @ tjwilkin